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Saturday, 24 February 2018

Pros and Cons of working up on a mountain

Many of you know that I work up on a mountain. Yes, the school I work at is situated on a mountain (925 above sea level). I know that's not high for Switzerland, but still, it's a mountain. The kids get to school by funicular, half of them are interns, half of them are externs.

Working up there can have pros and cons. Here the are:

The view from Zugerberg is stunning. You can see the lake, the city, the mountains and so much more. The sunsets from up there are break-taking. By walking a little bit you can see other views as well, into different directions. The space up there is huge, it's great for walks. In summer you can go hiking into different directions. In winter you can go sledging, skiing, snowshoeing or cross country skiing. It's also pretty in autumn, because of all the trees changing colours. Looking down onto the fog is a great feeling as well. Sometimes we have sunshine for days and the people down there don't see the sun at all. In summer, when it's really hot, we get cooler temperatures, which is great. Being outdoors, in the nature every day is fantastic.

My way to work is between 10 to 15 minutes, I always take the car and it's so close.

The disadvantage about that?! In winter I sometimes have to take the funicular or even public transport, because of the snow. It takes me an hour to get there by public transport and if I leave the car at the funicular station it takes me about half an hour. The uni only runs every half hour, so you always have to look at the time. The roads to get to the school are narrow and the farmers usually don't clear them. I don't have four wheel drive, so sometimes I just can't drive up. Winter can be long in Switzerland, so every morning I have to get up earlier, just to see if I can drive up. There are a few restaurants up there, but not more. So for shopping you have to go down and we really don't have many options for lunch. The fog can also get annoying, whether it's on the drive or when you are stuck in it the whole day. It can get really cold up on our mountain.

Don't get me wrong, I love working up there, but over the years these things have come together and I recently discussed them with my colleagues, so hence this blog post.